Different week, same story for Rory
Horschel delivers latest dagger at Wentworth; Rippers take LIV team title
Rory McIlroy and Bill Horschel played two playoff holes a combined 5-under (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
VIRGINIA WATER, England — Billy Horschel lifted his arms but barely showed any enthusiasm. He didn’t quite know how to celebrate the moment with the dead horse he’d beaten smiling at him from across the green.
“Made the putt and I was excited but at the same time, I could feel for him,” Horschel said of his eagle to beat Rory McIlroy on the second playoff hole and claim his second BMW PGA Championship. “Because he’s a friend of mine. I’ve known him since 2007 and I think the world of him and I think he’s the best player in our generation. I know he’s had somewhat of a tough back end of the year of not getting some victories when it looks like it’s going to be his.”
McIlroy — the dead horse or “nearly man” as he called himself last month — walks away from the DP World Tour’s flagship event at Wentworth with another big runner-up check a week after cashing another runner-up finish in his native Northern Ireland at the Irish Open. He keeps finding new ways to lose even when the narrative remains essentially the same.
Last week at Royal County Down, McIlroy was fending off the field trying to hang onto a lead starting the final round of the Irish Open. Denmark’s Rasmus Højgaard played the villain, holing out from jail on the 10th and 17th holes to charge past the hometown favorite. McIlroy’s eagle chance at the last to force a playoff rolled past the lip and left him a shot short while admittedly playing his best golf of the season.
This Sunday, McIlroy was the chaser, starting the day three shots off the lead of Matteo Manassero from Italy. McIlroy, Manassero, and Horschel were grouped together in a threesome for a wild 18 holes by a quirk in the weather.
In soft conditions with preferred lies, the West course at Wentworth was a shooting range with 279 birdies on the final day of the BMW PGA Championship and only four rounds over par of the 65 players that made the cut.
Unfortunately for Manassero, he was one of the over-par rounds of the day, shooting a 1-over 73 leaving him very much a spectator on the back nine.
Meanwhile, up ahead, first England’s Arron Rai and then South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence surged to leads. Rai’s early charge couldn’t make further inroads late as Lawrence, with seven birdies, moved to 20-under and two clear of everyone in the proverbial driver's seat with two par-5s to finish.
Lawrence, however, failed to birdie either one and had to wait to see what McIlroy and Horschel could do in the group behind him.
Mcilroy stood over his second shot into the 17th green two shots behind Lawrence. From 281 yards, he found the front of the green in wet conditions, a hole that yielded just one eagle earlier Sunday by Jens Dantorp of Sweden.
Not much should be able to shock Rory McIlroy anymore (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
From 47 feet, McIlroy’s putt rolled a perfect line and dropped for eagle and a share of the lead, a redemptive moment after last week when he three-putted the 17th green from shorter distance and then missed a 10-footer for eagle on the last that he needed to tie Højgaard.
“I think the biggest difference is that I had a 25-foot putt on 17 last week and three-putted and had a 40-footer on 17 this week and made it,” McIlroy said. “That was really the difference between not winning a tournament and not being in a playoff, and you know, being in a playoff with a better chance to win.”
Horschel, who made birdie on 17 himself to pull one behind the lead duo, was not surprised by the McIlroy bomb.
“I was expecting him to make that,” Horschel said. “I said it to him right after he made it. I said, ‘I had a feeling you were going to make yours.’”
For Lawrence and McIlroy, the 18th turned into a bust as they both made pars. Lawrence’s long birdie putt died in the jaws of the hole while McIlroy’s awkward yardage approach veered left of the hazard into the rough and kept him from pitching close enough to make the birdie he needed to win in regulation.
Horschel, meanwhile, nearly holed out for eagle and made the birdie he needed to reach 20-under and join a three-man playoff.
Lawrence, who like Horschel contended deep into the British Open at Royal Troon in July, got out of position in the playoff and made a sloppy bogey to bow out. McIlroy and Horschel both drained clutch birdie putts on the first extra hole to extend and head back to the 18th tee.
This time, both McIlroy and Horschel reached the middle of the 18th green in two shots. McIlroy putted first, and his eagle chance curled past the cup and left a tap-in for birdie. Now it was Horschel’s turn to break his heart from 25 feet, and his eagle putt disappeared and left McIlroy with a familiar feeling with his third heart-breaking runner-up of the concluded summer that started with his wrenching defeat to Bryson DeChambeau in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.
Billy Horschel’s celebration was muted in deference to McIlroy (Warren Little/Getty Images)
Now another dose of misery will follow McIlroy for two weeks when he and his father compete in the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
“Last week (at the Irish Open) was a tough one. This one, I left there with my head held high with the way I played the last hole trying to make three,” McIlroy said. “I mean, played the playoff holes perfectly, really, a couple of birdies. But it just shows the standard out here. If you slip up just a little bit or don’t make a birdie on a crucial hole, someone is always waiting to take advantage of that.
“I had my chance in regulation. Had a really awkward yardage for my second. Tried to turn a 4-iron over. I mean, I was lucky that it didn’t go in the water. …
“Two weeks in a row, I’ve played well. Just not quite well enough. But you know, happy with where my game is and happy where it’s trending. I’ve got a week off here, and then get back at it in the Dunhill in a couple weeks.”
Horschel did everything right down the stretch, going birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle to finish regulation and the playoff and win his second BMW PGA at Wentworth. While happy to win, Horschel was very conscious of the toll his success took on a friend he deeply respects.
“I can just feel for him because this is just another one that adds into that narrative going forward,” Horschel said. “He was great. He was happy for me. Yeah, it was just two really good friends trying to battle it out at the end.”
Ripper GC team of Aussies celebrate taking the team title (David Cannon/Getty Images)
C’mon Aussies: Rippers claim LIV crown
Cameron Smith and his all-Aussie Ripper GC claimed LIV Golf’s Team Championship on Sunday, the conclusion to the 2024 season.
Smith shot 4-under-par 68 at Maridoe Golf Club outside of Dallas to help his team finish at 11-under par and capture the team title by three strokes over Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces. The Iron Heads, who finished last in the overall team standings heading into the tournament, finished third followed by captain Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII.
Rahm did not play over the weekend due to the flu and it is possible his wife, Kelley, will give birth any day. He is scheduled to play in this week’s Open de España on the DP World Tour.
Marc Leishman (70), Lucas Herbert (69) and Matt Jones (70) are the other players on Ripper GC, with all four scores counting in the finals of the season-ending event.
The team earns $14 million from the $50 million purse, with each player getting $1.4 million and the rest going into the team coffers.
“Mate, it’s so good,” Smith said. “I mean, not only great golfers but they’re better people. I think that’s what being a Ripper is all about. Just so happens that we’re good golfers, too. It’s a good combo. But to have those three guys out there today, or six other guys really to lean on trying to get the job done, there was something in me that was telling me that we were going to be all right.”
Said Leishman: “Firstly, it’s unbelievable to win a team event. It’s not very often in golf you get to celebrate with other people who are equally as happy, and there’s about 15 of us here. Yeah, I mean, I feel like this win, Australia has been behind us so much. I think it’s a massive win for us individually, as a team. I’m so excited.”
Tyrrell Hatton couldn’t carry Legion XIII alone without Jon Rahm (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf)
Iron Heads GC, led by captain Kevin Na, was the surprise team among the four who made it to the Tier 1 finals. Having not finished better than sixth in any event all year, the team of Na, Danny Lee, Jinichiro Kozuma and Scott Vincent knocked off Brooks Koepka’s fourth-seeded Smash GC in the quarterfinals on Friday, prevailing in a playoff. Then they took out the top overall seed and defending team champions, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC, in the semifinals on Saturday.
Iron Heads GC earns $8 million while 4Aces GC collect $6 million. The teams keep 60 percent with each player banking 10 percent.
Koepka shot 80 on Sunday as his Crushers team finished 13th overall — last among the five Tier 3 teams who were eliminated on Friday.
Johnson’s 4Aces won the team title in 2022 and DeChambeau’s Crushers who won last season. The Crushers tied for seventh in Tier 2 with Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers.
Great piece!